Akira Live-Action Film Test Footage

The other day, Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson posted a spectacular proof of concept for The Leviathan (click here to view). He initially posted it on his Vimeo account and I noticed there was something else that was there: Test footage from his take on a live-action Akira film for Warner Brothers.

In 2007, Ruairí Robinson was hired by Warner Bros. to direct a live-action remake of Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 Japanese animated classic Akira. To secure the rights to Akira, WB had Robinson put together a rip reel. That's when a director cuts together footage from other movies to give viewers an idea of what the film will be like.

But, what is REALLY awesome about the video below is that it also contains original test footage that Robinson shot to give an impression of the movie. The test footage begins at the 3:57 mark in the video and includes some iconic shots from Akira, like the bomb crater and Kaneda's motorcycle.

"Purists may balk at the "New Manhattan" in the trailer (this reverted to New Tokyo very soon afterwards by the first draft of the script)," Robinson wrote on Vimeo. "Unfortunately they couldn't get the budget under 200 million bucks for that draft which was a bit rich for what was proposed as an R rated movie with no stars."

Let us know what you thought of the footage in the comment section below.